“Hey, fucker. What the hell you doing calling me right now? Yes, the roads up the mountain are closed. Is that what you called to check on?”
Hissing under my breath, I growl, “There was an accident up here today. Woman went off the edge of the road about halfway up. Her car’s stuck on a downed tree and currently stable but you know how the ground up here is after this much rain.”
“It’s not gonna last.” He sighs. “I can’t do anything about it now.”
“You know we need to get somebody up here now to deal with it.”
“I know that I’m not risking anybody’s life for a car that’s already totaled most likely. So if that’s all you want from me, you’re gonna have to wait.”
“Well, I was hoping that you could pick the driver up too and get her down the mountain and back in town as well. Get her on her way while she figures out what to do with her car.”
“No can do. Nobody is going to be heading up there for at least three days. The water needs to recede. Right now we’ve had some rock slides too that have blocked other areas of the roadand it’s too risky to try and clear that area until it dries out some more.”
“Yeah, yeah. There’s nothing you can do?”
“Unless that woman is hurt real bad. Then I can get a helicopter up there to get her to medical help. Is she hurt bad?”
“No,” I grumble under my breath, wishing like hell I could lie better. “I need to get her out of my hair though.”
“I’m sorry about this but it looks like you’re going to have a guest until the weather clears and the mountain road looks a helluva lot better than it does. Is she pretty?” he asks and I want to reach through the phone and strangle him.
Is she pretty?
Yeah, she’s a knockout. The most beautiful, tempting, terrifying woman I’ve ever met in my life.
But I don’t say that.
“She’s alright,” I growl. “But don’t think you’re getting anywhere near her, fucker. Her brother would break all the fingers on your hand if you touched her.
Like he should have done with me. I definitely deserved it.
I deserved all the nightmares and terror I’d been dealing with just for what I did to her.
CHAPTER 5
Marina
The clomping on the porch wakes me up and I struggle to open my eyes, my head throbbing with pain.
My wrist is waking again, the used ice pack just barely cold now.
The door swings open and a behemoth of a man comes through it, hauling some of my boxes in his massive arms.
My head is so damn muddled that for a minute, I don’t even recognize him. Not the beard, the full lips or the cold hazel eyes that glow with green and gold lights.
“Why the hell were you asleep? I told you not to go to sleep!”
And just like that, that harsh voice tells me who I’m looking at.
“Jeremiah? Still a charmer, I see.”
‘You just saw me an hour ago.” His concerned eyes zero in on me even as he drops a couple of my boxes on the gleaming floor. “Is there something wrong with your head? How’s your memory? Any gaps?”
“I wish,” I grumble under my breath. “I remember who you are and why I’m here and how mean you were to me ten years ago.” I pause when his eyes flash with pain. My head tilts.
It was there and gone in a flash and I’m not even sure that I saw it.
“I didn’t do anything but let you go, Mari. You deserved a shot at the kind of life I can’t give you. You always wanted to work in the big city.”
